Alinea | Chicago, IL
I have eaten in some of the top restaurants in the world, worked in the top restaurants in the country, and nothing until this point could have prepared me for what was about to happen. This wasn't dinner, although we ate for 4 hours and I left stuffed, this was one of the most intense experiences I have ever felt. Happiness, overcoming confusion to clarity and a bit of sadness seasoned with joy. Nostalgia and memories that were brought back so vividly, it felt as if all of my emotions were being pushed and played in beautiful harmony. This isn't a review, this is a story, the story of the art at Alinea...
Grant Achatz is one of those names that has become almost household recognizable. Whether that’s because of all the media and press or just the foodie movement in America but if you’re talking about the best food in the country, Grant’s name is bound to get brought up. On the off chance you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, Alinea has consistently been one of the top restaurants in the country (if not the world). Given his deep background it’s no surprise to anyone Grant is where he is today: cooking for Charlie Trotter, The French Laundry for Thomas Keller, his apprenticeship with Ferran Adria at El Buli, all leading to this Parthenon of a restaurant that would only start his own ‘foodpire’.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way we can get down to business. I knew going into this that I couldn't have any expectations. They had just renovated the space and reformatted the menu; I had no idea what to expect but I knew I would be wowed. Now lets pause for a second. Here’s a guy who, as I just told you, is running one of the best restaurants in the world for over 10 years. Why would he close to only change everything he’d been doing? But you see, that’s the thing about Alinea. The term literally means "the start of a new thought" so aren't they responsible for "always pushing to reinvent the wheel" as Grant puts it? It's this attitude and passion about the pursuit of perfection that puts you at the top and keeps you at the top.
We walk in the doors and are greeted at the front desk in this narrow hallway by three gentlemen. As we introduced ourselves I was so excited that I ignored the guy’s outstretched hand and instinctively went in for a hug. The other two and my brother naturally laughed and got in for one big group hug. A grown man standing in a custom tailored suit with four men holding him – that image alone tells you it was going to be an interesting night! We make our way around the corner and are greeted by a fairly large dining room with a big community table going down the middle; a setting in front of each chair and beautiful citrus fruit centerpieces. We take our seats and get to know the diners around us, coming from everywhere between San Francisco and Spain.
In front of us lay an ice block with 5 holes drilled in them. From left to right we have black truffle mousse and fresh shaved truffle, king crab, a glass of minced shallots and herbs, osetra cavier (the best and rarest in the world from osetra sturgeon) and lastly an egg yolk custard with shaved yolk on top. The idea is to mix and match flavors creating your own bites on freshly toasted brioche. Such a fun way of starting a meal because there are truly no wrong combinations, it allows you to play chef. As our ice continues to melt, and I run out of bread, the course begins to end. We are then instructed to stand up and find our way into the kitchen for the next course. As we file in to the kitchen you can see all these small projects and courses being plated for other dining rooms and guests (yes there are multiple dining rooms with different experience levels for different prices). Chef Simon, an Executive Sou Chef, starts putting together our next course right in front of us: a parmesan doughnut with coffee date puree and shaved walnuts. To pair with it, they start concocting a cocktail made with quince ice cubes poached in manzania sherry, st george, brut amaro, some gin and an egg white. They place it all in a shaker tin and inside of a custom Tanqueray shaker mill that shakes two tins simultaneously as you crank the machine (only 30 were made in the world).
While all this is going on, they hung a canvas sheet in the door way so the dining room was blocked. They have your attention and make you look one way meanwhile they are flipping the dining room in minutes, something like the ultimate slide of hand. The communal table is broken apart into separate tables accommodating parties of 4 or 6 (we were the only two top in the dining room). They enclose the room with these big canvas paintings done by a local artist, hang branches and wildlife around you and these big Plexiglas paintings are cascading above you now while you eat. As we walk back into the dining room everyone is wowed as they are escorted to their seats.
The next course was probably my favorite, mainly because of its simplicity. The course was called ‘crunch paper’. A bowl of white sheets of ‘glass’ resembling paper stands upright in a bowl. On the bottom was just a little bit of clarified butter. Our captain then pours hot corn broth over the sheets, slowly wilting them as they reconstitute into noodles in the bowl. The smell of shellfish that was expelled was extremely potent and yet very light, not too aggressive. I take my first bite and my mind was literally blown. "WHAT" I sputtered as I start laughing to my brother. The noodles were made of pure scallop. The flavor was as if I was biting into a barely seared scallop and the texture still felt fibrous as the strands started to separate in my mouth. How do you break down a product, rearrange its structural properties only for it to taste like it was never even played with?! The technique they used alone, as a chef, just absolutely took my breath away. It was magic. To finish the course they served a piece of Nori shell filled with a cornbread puree, think a cannoli imposter.
Next, Contrast of Espana! Three dishes were placed in front of us. We can eat them in any order but chef asks that we finish one small dish before moving onto the next. To explain the textures and techniques used in all of these courses would literally take forever. So for the sake of your eyes (and your time) I'm only going to focus on flavor profiles and discuss textures and fine details as needed. The flavors of these dishes were bright, lots of citrus, which was nice because technically it was still winter. Cider orange and maple, apple lemon balm and yuzu, pear foam Jamon Iberico and paprika cream were the profiles of each little bowl. As we begin to eat, a server stops by with a pot of hot yuzu tea and pours it into the centerpiece. This centerpiece that I’ve been admiring for about 40 minutes now starts flowing with smoke, or fog, that cascades onto our table (I'm assuming there’s a bed of dry ice under there). The scent of the herbs and citrus skins that have been in that bowl start to exfoliate the air and the room starts to fill with a strong citrus scent as we ate our course in a cloud - a mesmerizing experience.
Now here is a perfect example of their attention to detail. At this point in our meal they picked up on my brother being left handed and started to mark him on the opposite side. They were actually paying close enough attention to how we were eating, only to make him more comfortable and have less effort in enjoying his meal. I can imagine a lot of you rolling your eyes right now but this type of treatment and pamper is what sets this experience apart from your average meal. I suppose though that’s because this isn't just a meal.
Following my gustatory trip to Spain was a Thailand inspired dish. Remember when I said they closed down to renovate? Well Grant didn't waste anyone’s time and sent his staff all around the world to explore and learn. One of the places they went was Thailand. In a coconut bowl comes a shellfish stew with coconut (obviously), pompano, kudzu and herbs. To be honest, I wasn't crazy about this dish but in its defense I’m really not into savory coconut dishes all too much. However, served immediately after was a palate cleanser of sprouted coconut dipped in coconut oil and rolled in palm sugar. For me this was a first: I have never had sprouted coconut. I have heard of it and have been very curious but, unfortunately, have been unable to get my hands on it. A coconut, as most of you already know, is a seed. When it starts to go through its germination process the inside starts to break down naturally, altering its flesh to be sweeter and take on a spongy consistency unlike normal fresh coconut. The flavor is a little more mild but much sweeter and it almost sticks to your teeth a bit as your chewing like a taffy would.
Next the lights are turned off. A fire is placed on our table and we are handed a silicon dish that we have to hold while we eat the next course. It was supposed to feel as if we were on an island, on a beach, eating our dinner at night with our hands by a fire. Pork belly, curry and banana peppers, only they weren't spicy. They had been blanched and soaked in ice water for a few days to remove the casein. All you tasted was the sweetness and flavor in the pepper that is usually missed. It was a pretty cool course but the real surprise was when they turned the lights back on. A server came by with a tray made of nothing but big rosemary branches that have been soaked in water so they are well saturated. On top are pieces of raw hamachi skewered with a rosemary sprig and some nori. They place the tray on top of the fire, smothering it to put it out, and as the branches release moisture the fish on top is slowly steamed. This sat on our table as we ate the next course in amazement.
A big dramatic white round plate is placed in front of us shortly after with roasted maitake mushrooms, blueberries, lapsang tea (a smokey essence) and a sauce that has been mounted with foie gras. I’ve had foie tons of ways in the past but never used effortlessly just to mount a sauce. The flavor was unreal; here you have this nice, thick, meaty mushroom that stands well against aggressive roasting covered in this unctuous, fatty, rich goodness. It felt like I was eating a piece of meat!
After we had finished, we took this citrus they called "sprite fruit", squeezed it over the fish from our steamy centerpiece and took a bite of our perfectly cooked hamachi. The table is then cleared.
Chef likes to use few ingredients in each dish, but reprise them in different ways and textures to really make you think. We often found ourselves asking, "how is this possible?" or "I didn't think that could ever be done". I also kept repeating to our captain "you have the best job, you know that right?" To watch people experience awe and wonder and witness the emotions pouring off of every table has to be truly gratifying for anyone on this team. It reminded me of why I got into the restaurant industry in the first place.
Now there are courses I won't get to mention considering we had over 25 but I will be posting pictures for you to feast your eyes on with descriptions. We journeyed through veggie courses, a meat course, a smoke centered course, and a "bone" course (bone marrow and wagyu tartar on the best rice krispie you’ve ever had) and had finally come to one of our final savory dishes (which in fact was a special course just for us). It was a rendition of a dish from Joel Robuchon’s opening menu of his Parthenon of a restaurant in France, done here with potatoes and truffles. One of the richest bites of food I’ve ever taken. It truly threw you back in your seat saying, “WOW”. Truffle potato puree on the bottom, thin potato chips stacked alternating with shaved white truffles on top, finished with roasted hazelnuts and hazelnut oil. The layering, the textures, and the essence from the white truffle sang together perfectly in each bite. It had crunch, it had fat and a velvety aspect, potent aroma from the truffles and a warm nuttiness to bring it all home. They spoiled us with this one.
As our tables are getting cleared I start noticing something odd going on. A server reaches into a closet and pulls out a ladder and places it in the middle of the room. One by one they start taking down these paintings that have been hanging above us this entire time. As our tables are practically empty at this point, a server places a painting on everyone’s table and the lights are, once again, shut off. Then “Dance Yrself Clean” by LCD Soundsystem starts to play as chefs come out of the kitchen one by one with different pots and cups in there hand. Each of them make their rounds to every table throwing different types of sauces, textures and components ON TOP OF the painting. As the tempo of the music picks up more chefs start coming out faster as they’re "painting" on your table. The last thing to touch down was this frozen mousse that was then cracked in half in front of us as the lights come back on. The music continues to play and you are faced with this beautiful dish the size of your table. It was like the Italian Job ya know? The lights go out again and you hear or see a few things happen and when they come back on everything is different; definitely the coolest plating I’ve ever seen. As we finish our final course it’s hard to believe this is all coming to an end, almost four hours later we were in total awe, stunned by the magic of Alinea.
After everyone had started to leave we were escorted into the kitchen to meet the chefs and thank them. We were caught up for about 40 minutes talking about different restaurants and the new food scenes taking over different cities. Before ya know it we’re drinking white truffle infused chartreuse and cracking up wondering where the time went. They called us an Uber, thanked us one last time for coming and we were on our way. The ride home went by in a blink, I didn't know how to process everything that had just happened; my mind was racing. I’ve had many great meals before but not like this. I felt bubbly, like butterflies were in my stomach, or maybe it was just the helium. The attention to detail, the pursuit of perfection and thrive to push the envelope is what escalates this experience from any other. It was like a magic show, he puts these feelings of excitement in you like you’ve figured it out or you understand this secret. This was art, it was personal and emotional; chef really made you feel special.
Tags: review, reviews, Michelin, Chicago, fine dining
